A group of 4th graders follow Nicole Filiatreault down a gravel road towards the pastures where the bison graze.
The students are from Crandon, Laona, and Wabeno School Districts.
They’re learning all about the Forest County Potawatomi Farm.
Filiatreault is the environmental educator for the Forest County Potawatomi Land and Natural Resources Division.
“They’re definitely excited, especially for the little piglets. I think they’re just excited to see any animal. I don’t think a lot of them have seen many animals on a natural farm like this,” she said.
For the entire school year students have been learning about the importance of agriculture through a UW-Extension 4-H project.
Michelle Gobert is the Positive Youth Development Educator with UW-Extension Forest County.
“We learned a lot about how everything, the daily activities that they do are influenced by agriculture,” said Gobert.”
Gobert says it’s important for kids to learn at a young age how their food is grown and raised.
“It’s about connecting themselves to the land as well and what the earth provides, what agriculture provides for them. It gives them a deeper sense of understanding. It also connects them to Forest County as a whole because we talked a lot about farming in our county,” said Gobert.
Filiatreault agrees and says the Forest County Potawatomi Farm is the perfect place for the students to learn that.
“We are a farm that doesn’t use any chemicals. We let all the animals lead their natural life. I think it’s important for kids to see, not animals that are cooped up in a barn, but are living on pasture and able to see just what their free life is like,” she said.
Those messages are sticking with 4th graders like Scarlett Palubicki.
“Because you get food from there and animals get grown up from there,” she said when asked why farms are important.
